Barclay CTA Index Down 1.74% in October; 70% of Managers End Month with a Loss

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, November 20, 2012 – Managed futures lost 1.74% in October according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The Index now has a negative return for the year with an overall loss of 1.36%.

“October was a difficult month for most CTAs with roughly 70 percent of managers recording losses,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.

“Commodity markets moved sharply lower, interest rates whip-sawed, equity prices were strong early on only to lose ground later in the month, and unanticipated easing by the Bank of Japan resulted in a 2.3 percent decline of the Japanese Yen against the US Dollar.”

All eight of Barclay’s CTA indices had losses in October. The Diversified Traders Index dropped 2.71%, Systematic Traders lost 2.29%, Agricultural Traders were down 0.92%, and Financial & Metals Traders gave up 0.86%.

The Barclay BTOP50 Index, which measures performance of the largest CTAs, lost 2.36% in October.

Year to date, Agricultural Traders are up 6.85%, Discretionary Traders have gained 1.99%, and Currency Traders have a 0.85% return.

On the negative side of the ledger, Diversified Traders are down 3.43%, Systematic Traders have lost 3.03%, and the Financial & Metals Traders Index is down 2.67%.

Click here to view 33 years of Barclay CTA Index data.

Sol Waksman is an experienced media source, providing perspectives on hedge fund and managed futures trends. For more commentary or background, call 641-472-3456 or email swaksman@barclayhedge.com.

BarclayHedge was founded in 1985 and actively tracks more than 6,200 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and managed futures programs. Each month Barclay provides updated performance rankings for 38 Hedge Fund categories, 16 CTA categories, and 7 UCITS categories.

Institutional investors, brokerage firms, and private banks worldwide utilize BarclayHedge indices as performance benchmarks for the hedge fund and managed futures industries.